Low Tide Digitals III

Rune Grammofon;
2009

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Low tide is a time of revelation: Bits of driftwood, seaweed, and shells form a cryptic record of the immense forces that arrayed them. Bo Wiget and Luigi Archetti could not have picked a more apt metaphor for their ongoing collaboration. They work exclusively in rubbish-- scraps of treated cello, guitar, and mandolin; layers of low-hertz tone and fizzing treble; sculpted interference; asphyxiated frequencies-- which their improvisational rapport turns into treasure. Their music possesses a sense of disclosure: These compositions feel like the exposed edges of vast, submerged things, soon to slip beneath the surface again.

Ten years into their learning curve as a duo, Wiget and Archetti have gotten so good at listening to each other that their music feels telepathic. Low Tide Digitals III is the product of two minds operating as one, pursuing common goals with empathetic tension. Currents of severe modern classical, harsh noise, and ambient music pass in a fluid back-and-forth, like a comfortable but tendentious conversation between old friends. Both musicians are out-music veterans: Archetti, an Italian based in Zürich, was a member of Krautrock band Guru Guru, and Wiget, a native of Switzerland, has collaborated with many secret-stars of improv, like Taku Sugimoto. Their experience means they never have to rush or force anything; they close in on coherent themes with measured, effortless strides.

An undulant pulse ties the pieces together, and each one is distinguished by its unique 3-D shape and finessed timbre. "On "Stück 26", Wiget and Archetti gently dissect a glassy cluster of notes, gouts of dark matter spilling from the incisions. "Stück 27" is a huge onrushing shape, like a freight train bearing down in the darkness. The organic and electronic aren't grafted together; they're fused. Prickly strings melt into torrents of mechanical sludge, or shed pitch-bent droplets that swoop out into powerful arcs, or just flex and then roar. Wiget and Archetti exploit timbral overlaps to make noise and melody work in tandem. Or actually, more like negate each other-- social constructs like classical and experimental, organic and electronic, pretty and ugly don't appear to pertain in the private world of Low Tide Digitals III, an ocean built for two.